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Back to the Future: Marriage as Friendship in the Thought of Mary Wollstonecraft

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Ruth Abbey
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Abstract

If liberal theory is to move forward, it must take the political nature of family relations seriously. The beginnings of such a liberalism appear in Mary Wollstonecraft's work. Wollstonecraft's depiction of the family as a fundamentally political institution extends liberal values into the private sphere by promoting the ideal of marriage as friendship. However, while her model of marriage diminishes arbitrary power in family relations, she seems unable to incorporate enduring sexual relations between married partners.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , Summer 1999 , pp. 78 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by Hypatia, Inc.

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